by Jack Soren
“It’s not?” she said, challenging his convictions. He ignored it.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Why not?”
“Because you would never have the shares to give him in the first place.”
“What?”
Nathan pushed every fiber of his body to the breaking point and fought the neuro-blocker as much as he could, doing his best impression of leaning forward.
“You don’t own any stock. And you never would have. Do you really think I’d leave my company to someone who didn’t have my blood running through their veins?” It was a lie. Nathan had fully intended on leaving everything to Lara, with a healthy portion left to her sister, of course. But everything was unraveling: going behind his back to Canton, Sophia discovering he wasn’t their biological father and attacking him. Ironically The Monarch—the thing he’d been trying to destroy and blaming for his financial downfall due to the expense of the search—was looking like the only thing that could save him.
“What?” Lara hissed more than said, her breath coming in gasps.
It was time to get in front of this thing.
“Sophia, who you seem to think is oblivious to everything and naive, has figured something out you haven’t—I’m not your biological father. In fact, legally, I’m nothing to either one of you, since I never adopted you either.”
Nathan, to send his point home, took his eyes off of her and rolled over to the window, looking out on his jungle. A few guards were moving about, their loyalty bought and paid for. Lara sat slack-jawed, staring at the floor.
“Almost forty years ago, when the doctors first detected kuru in my blood, I bought Kring Laboratories and set them to work. Never being one for half measures, I wanted someone in-house with my best interests at heart. Someone who would fight for me, regardless of a paycheck. I had no idea how long I had before the symptoms would start showing up. So I assembled a team of scientists and sent them to scour these islands looking for just the right person.
“Someone young and malleable, someone with off-the-chart intelligence but controllable—someone without a father.”
“Sophia,” Lara said softly. Nathan wheeled around to face her.
“Sophia.”
“But Mother said—”
“Pearl was an exceptional woman. She knew a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when she saw it. Your life on the Maldives was less than luxurious, and the future that lay before you and your sister was anything but bright. Your mother and I made a deal, a business transaction. Beneficial to everyone.”
“You . . . you bought us.”
“Not us. Sophia. Originally I was just going to take her, but your mother was savvy and if I didn’t take both of you there was no deal. She impressed me and I agreed, bringing her along in the bargain. And don’t be mistaken, I came to love your mother, dearly. As she came to love me. It was a tragic irony when a disease she was carrying took her from us,” Nathan said, feeling melancholy at the remembrance of holding Pearl’s hand at her bedside while cancer destroyed her.
“Then I was—”
“Baggage,” Nathan said, being deliberately cruel. She had to be punished.
Lara visibly recoiled in her chair. She looked around the room as if waiting for someone to let her in on the joke, her mouth opening and closing as she gulped air.
“How did you think I would react?” Nathan asked. His biggest problem right now was not Canton George. He was sure he could handle that old snake even in his present condition. The real problem was that he still needed Lara. It would soon be time to clean up the loose ends, and he couldn’t do it alone. Sophia, though brilliant, was no killer. Neither was Lara at the moment, but if he spun this situation right, that would change.
“In any case, I’m willing to forget this momentary . . . lapse in judgment. You may not be my blood, but you’re still mine.” Lara winced and closed her eyes. “As long as you do as I say and keep me alive, you’ll continue to have the money and power of the Kring family at your disposal.”
Nathan drove forward until he was right beside her again. She turned and looked at him. Nathan assayed her eyes for a moment. The fire was gone. She would do as he said from now on. He realized once all this was over it would be child’s play to get her back into his bed.
“You’ll have a job for life,” Nathan said. “My life.”
9:45 A.M.
“WHAT’S DOWN THERE?” Jonathan asked as he and Sophia passed a ladder that led below. They were in the bowels of the complex, a core area that ran the full height of the installation, where the lifeblood of the complex coursed in and out. Bands of pipes hugged walls and ceilings, running up, down, back and forth. From what Jonathan could tell, they carried water, sewage, steam, hydro cables, and natural gas. The smell was terrible, but not nearly as bad as the noise.
“That’s where the generators are and the holding tanks for the natural gas,” Sophia shouted, though he barely heard her. “Come on.”
Sophia waved for him to follow. They turned one of the corners in the poured concrete tunnel—which seemed to be made of nothing but corners—and she led him to a ladder. Jonathan had lost track of their way a long time ago. He didn’t even want to think about being in here without Sophia.
She pumped her thumb up. Jonathan was glad he got the message, because he couldn’t hear a thing.
He climbed up the ladder, with Sophia close behind him, until he reached a closed hatch. He reached up and turned the circular handle a few times and then pushed up. When the hatch was all the way open, he climbed up out. Sophia followed, shutting the hatch behind her, muffling the majority of the noise.
“Thank you,” Jonathan said, wiggling a finger in his ear.
“It’s been almost twenty minutes,” Sophia said. “Let’s go. If they come back while we’re in here noise is going to be the least of our problems.”
Back in her lab, she’d led Jonathan to a vent that had looked welded shut, but had opened easily. Sophia said she and Lara used to play in the tunnels when they would visit the island as kids. But then her father had discovered the natural gas pocket under the island and dug out a newer, deeper level to manage the gas and house several giant generators. After that, her father had welded most of the vents shut except for a few larger access panels in the corridors. Sophia didn’t explain why, but a few years ago she’d used some of her chemicals to break the weld around the vent in her lab. If they found Natalie he wasn’t going to be able to hold her, but he could see her and talk to her. That would be enough until he could figure a way out of this mess.
He really wished Lew was here.
“This corridor runs along the guest rooms. If she’s here she’ll be in one of these,” Sophia said.
Jonathan crouched and trotted over to the first one, but saw no one inside. The next three were the same. Then, in the second to last room, he found her, his breath catching in his throat when he saw her.
The room was bright, fake sunshine coming from phony windows on one wall, an impossibility this far underground. The color scheme was bright as well. All golds and yellows. It resembled a hotel room, with a dresser and writing table against the wall. In the middle of the room was a large bed and on it sat Natalie. She was busy drawing.
He opened his mouth to call to her, but stopped himself at the last second.
“What is it?” Sophia asked. Jonathan gently led her away from the vent so they could talk without Natalie hearing them.
“I can’t say anything to her,” Jonathan said, standing close to Sophia so he could keep his voice down. She smelled of chemicals and animals. He thought it odd that it was about the best thing he’d ever smelled.
“Why not?”
“What would I say? ‘Daddy’s been kidnapped and has to go be a thief. Remember to brush your teeth.’ It’s ridiculous,” Jonathan said. He’d explai
ned about The Monarch when they first entered the tunnels. His honesty was Sophia’s price for helping him, though he felt she would have helped him regardless.
“She’ll understand,” Sophia said.
“No. She won’t. Besides, even if she did, as hard as it is for her right now, how much harder would it be knowing I was out here somewhere? How could I explain why she has to stay there? No, it has to be this way.”
Sophia looked at him, her head slightly tilted. She looked almost . . . awed.
“All right. If you say so. Whatever we’re going to do, we have to do it now.”
“Just let me look at her again,” Jonathan said, turning and easing back to the vent.
Jonathan smiled as he watched her. Then, out of nowhere, Natalie started singing. Just a silly, repetitive children’s song, but it was more than Jonathan could take. He backed away from the vent, blinking tears from his eyes.
“Okay. Let’s go—” Sophia put her arms around him and hugged him. Part of him wanted to let go and sob, another part of him wanted to do something very different. He took the middle ground and just accepted the human contact. When she let him go, he saw she was crying and knew it wasn’t just for him.
“Come on,” she said.
11:00 A.M.
SOPHIA AND JONATHAN got back to the lab ten minutes before Nathan and Lara returned. An hour later, Nathan dismissed the guards. Alone, he took Jonathan on what he thought would be another tour. Jonathan expected Lara to complain again, but she remained silent. Even her stance was different on her return than before they’d left the lab.
Level five, accessible by a separate, private elevator at the far end of level four, held something Jonathan had never expected to see in such a place. But he was starting to realize that this island and Nathan’s life were filled with the unexpected.
“My father started this collection before I was born,” Nathan said as he rolled over to where Jonathan stood. “He never divulged its existence to anyone, including me. I stumbled upon it years ago when I was expanding the complex. On the first day of excavation, we found this chamber. It was a very special day.”
Jonathan had no doubt. And if he knew this man at all, he also had no doubt that the workers who had been present that day no longer drew breath.
The room was a treasure vault.
“I don’t suppose it ever occurred to you to return these items to their rightful owners,” Jonathan said.
“And who would that be? The country that pillaged their neighbor hundreds of years ago? The men these articles were taken from before they wound up here? In the case of the religious icons, the Catholic Church? We all know what pillars of honor they’ve been through the centuries.”
“Those are weak justifications, and you know it. These treasures don’t belong to you, no matter how much you paid for them. Even if you didn’t pull the job yourself, you’re a thief. And so’s your father.”
“And you’re a Supreme Court justice? Please, you’ve made your living and your fame as a thief.”
“That’s different. I’ve never kept any of it. It’s all where it rightfully should be,” Jonathan said, examining a van Gogh he’d never even heard of.
“And you’ve never taken a finder’s fee?”
Jonathan didn’t say anything.
“My point exactly,” Nathan said. “I’m sorry you can’t appreciate this for what it is. I think it was a mistake showing it to you. Let’s go. Dinner will be ready shortly. And you have a job to do.” It was hard to tell through the electronic device he used to communicate, but he thought Nathan was insulted.
“Hang on,” Jonathan said, coming around a large display case of royal jewels. He was only halfway into the room, but the treasure seemed to stop there. The display cases and pedestals continued on to the far wall in the distance, but they stood empty. “Where’s the rest of it?”
“What do you mean? That’s all of it. Isn’t it enough? You seem to think there shouldn’t be anything here and yet you’re complaining about the depth of my collection?”
Jonathan walked up to an empty display case and saw a plaque describing what wasn’t there and a clean area within the dust on the pedestal.
“The items have been taken out. Wait. You’ve been selling them,” Jonathan said, realizing what was happening. Nathan’s endeavor to find him had been so costly he’d had to start selling his prized collection, piece by piece.
“That’s enough of your impudence, Mr. Hall. Leave. Now. Or I won’t be responsible for what happens to your treasure.”
Jonathan felt the blood boil up into his face. He fought the urge to strike out and forced himself to walk silently to the door. He’d found Nathan’s Achilles’ heel and he’d foolishly poked at it.
As they headed to the private elevator, Jonathan couldn’t help but wonder how whatever Nathan wanted him to steal could possibly be worth half a roomful of treasure. Canton George had something Nathan was willing to financially ruin himself to get. Anytime someone wanted something that bad it made him dangerous and unpredictable.
But nowhere near as dangerous as the man who already had it.
36
Federal Plaza
New York City
7:00 A.M. Local Time
“IS THAT HIM?” Lew asked from behind the wheel of the liberated car. Emily had been less than thrilled with the idea of stealing a car. Probably about as thrilled as Jonathan would have been to find out that the woman he’d asked Lew to protect—the final thing he’d ever said to Lew—was sitting in that stolen car staking out a police cordoned-off federal building waiting to follow an FBI agent.
Lew knew what he should have done was dump Emily off with the cops where she’d be safe, but when he thought about it, she hadn’t done so well under their care the last time. They had managed to get a few hours’ sleep in the car—Emily more than Lew—but as it got close to the time when the junior agent was supposed to show up, Lew would wake Emily up and ask if anything that moved was the guy they were waiting for.
“For the fifth time, no,” Emily said. Lew was not a watcher. He was a doer. This recon stuff was Jonathan’s thing.
“Hey, I’m just asking,” Lew said.
“That’s not even a man,” Emily said, sounding like her frustration level was reaching its breaking point.
“It is so.” Lew leaned forward and looked closer. “Son of a bitch. I guess if you can make it here you can make it anywhere.” She’d stopped laughing at his bad jokes about an hour ago.
Lew was actually glad their frustration levels were so high. The first few hours of sitting in the car had been uncomfortable in a different way. The space in the front seat seemed interminably cramped and when their hands accidentally brushed each other it was as if a spark lit up the car’s interior. Ever since that moment in the elevator, all he could think about was what it would be like to hold Emily. Lew was sure his time in Yazoo was to blame, but that fact didn’t help. At least now, as he deliberately annoyed her and made her snap at him, he was starting to lean back toward wanting to push her out the door and go on alone. At least, a little.
“There he is!” Emily said, grabbing Lew’s arm in her excitement. Her hands felt hot all the way through his duster’s sleeve.
“Okay, okay,” Lew said after swallowing. “He still has to go up and get the stuff. Let’s hope he’s not being paid by the hour.”
They watched Hinton flash his ID to the cops at the blockade before they moved the yellow sawhorse out of the way. He pulled his green Ford up in front and got out, slipping on a construction hardhat before entering the building.
“Make sure that thing is ready,” Lew said.
Twenty minutes later he came out of the building carrying two office file boxes. He put them in the back of the Ford, got in, and headed back for the barricade.
“Here we go,” Lew said as he pulled
out and drove in the opposite direction.
“What are you doing?! He’s back there,” Emily said.
“Relax. I’ve done this before,” Lew said. As he drove he kept an eye on his rearview mirror and slowed down gradually. Pretty soon the green Ford was right behind them. If he’d pulled out after the agent had left, the cops would have noticed him. This way he was just part of New York’s morning traffic.
“Use the mirrors. Don’t look back,” Lew said. “Do we have a signal yet?” If the phone was off or out of battery power, this was all for naught.
“I don’t see . . . wait! Yes, I’ve got a signal,” Emily said. “Signals.”
“Signals?” Then Lew realized they were in New York and there had to be hundreds of Bluetooth devices around them—phones, headsets, Walkmans, you name it. “Can you identify the phone?”
“No,” Emily said. “I have no idea . . . wait, something’s happening.” Lew tried to look at the device but he had his hands full with the traffic and keeping an eye on the green Ford, making sure he didn’t get more than twenty or so feet away from it.
“Yes! I love you!”
“Uh, what?” Lew suddenly felt his cheeks flush.
“Oh, not you. Raiden. He coded the device to the phone. It’s eliminating erroneous signals. And . . . there. Got it. It’s locking on now and . . . no! The signal’s gone.”
“Gone? But he’s—” Lew looked up and saw that the green Ford was gone. He’d taken his eye off it for just a second. Lew slowed and spun his head around. “There he is. Four cars back. On your side.”
Emily looked in the mirror and nodded that she saw him. Lew slowed to the point where the cars behind him started honking, but he didn’t care. They were getting closer. Then the green Ford pulled out and started to pass on the outside. Lew would actually prefer if he got ahead of them. At least then he could . . . oh shit.
“Get down!” Lew shouted.
